News

The most important events in the world of digital marketing (and beyond) – 2021

The end of 2021 – a time for summaries and reflections. What was happening in the world of digital, marketing? I asked the KomuKoncept team to indicate, in their opinion, the most important events.

Michal Opydo

Facebook and Meta

Although it is hard to judge from the current perspective, perhaps one of the most important events of this year was conference during which we saw for the first time the new version of Facebook called Meta. Not because of the rebranding, which doesn't seem revolutionary in any way, or even because of the next announcements and news about the world of VR and AR. After all, it's been known for a long time that Facebook is investing heavily in this topic.
 
Zuckerberg's conference was the moment when the vision of the world of the company behind the largest social media was shown so strongly for the first time. The question we do not yet know the answer to is whether this vision will be fulfilled and how. Facebook is now surrounded by a large dose of skepticism and critical view, which it deserves. We do not know whether the Metaverse will bring us more benefit or harm. However, if the vision presented at the conference, which could completely change the way we function, is fulfilled, perhaps this is the conference that historians will consider a milestone marking a new stage in the development of technology.
 
Facebook has many problems and one of them worth mentioning is changes in Facebook Ads algorithms and tracking caused by the introduction of a new, restrictive privacy policy in the Apple ecosystem. Privacy is a hot topic right now, and more and more companies are making changes to protect our data. Many people are of course skeptical about these changes. After all, why would we believe that the same companies that used to use our data have suddenly undergone a beautiful conversion?
 
The question you could ask yourself is: Has the privacy trend not become strong enough?that many companies that don't have to rely on them will find it more profitable to introduce further solutions that assure users that they are not being tracked, rather than trade in this data and risk further PR blunders. I wouldn't be surprised if this trend intensified in the next year.
 
The world of the Internet is constantly changing. This year we welcomed to our Polish network Amazon, and at the same time we finally said goodbye nk.pl (Once Our Class), once our local king of social media. Time will tell how many changes 2022 will bring.

Agnieszka Untimely

Open Eyes Economy Summit 2021

An important event in 2021 for me was the Open Eyes Economy Summit 2021. It was the first stationary conference this year that I fully participated in after the lockdown. It inspired me and gave me energy and optimism to make bold plans for 2022.

C-19 vaccinations

Another event in 2021 was the vaccination against Covid-19. Thanks to it, at least for me, the time of freezing and waiting for what lies ahead ended. It gave us hope and energy to make plans in the new reality. 

Antonina Grabiec

Video content

2021 is another year of rapid development of video content. Writing that Tik Tok is a powerhouse doesn't make much sense - we all know that already. However, it is surprising how "stupid videos recorded by children" have become our everyday life and have changed our perspective on this type of content and the entire style of video. "Tiktok" short films with fast transitions can be found everywhere - on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, not to mention Instagram, whose new tool - reels, only strengthens the trend for this type of content. Content that is quick, easy to consume, unprofessional - recorded at home, funny.

Instagram breakthroughs

This year we could also observe several breakthroughs in the Instagram world. After years of waiting, the inscription "music is not available in your country" was forgotten, and Poland joined the group of civilized countries with access to such facilities. The link sticker, on the other hand, overthrew the magic number of 10 thousand followers, after which you received the anointment of influencer. This step, together with the possibility of hiding the number of followers and likes under posts, heralds a new Instagram - natural, local, educational and sensitive to the difficulties that the current world is struggling with.

Wojciech Szywalski

Global Digitalization

The year 2021 was once again marked by the global pandemic and, therefore, even greater digitalization of various spheres of our lives. 
 
Globally, e-commerce recorded another year of growth, confirming a strongly outlined trend "to "north" thanks to, among other things, the increasingly strong digital entry of traditional consumer brands and a veritable flood of new sellers on e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, looking for their chance in the digital world.
 
emarketer-retail-ecommerce-sales-worldwide
 
Global digitization is also manifested in the emergence of new types of digital communities, which are a marriage of gaming with social networks and are characterized by having their own digital economy that allows players to build real income.
 
A flagship example of the concept "play to earn money" is Axie Infinity, which has enjoyed great popularity among the relatively poor communities of the Philippines.
 
Thanks to playing Axie, Filipinos have discovered the possibility of earning real money without leaving home. All you need is a smartphone and an Internet connection to earn digital tokens while playing (NFTs), which can then be converted into cryptocurrency (ETH) convertible into any other national currency at the appropriate rate.
 
The Axie Infinity community already had over 60,000 Filipinos participating in mid-2021, thanks to which they were able to support their household budgets weakened by the lockdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When talking about digital economies, it is impossible to ignore the rebranding of Facebook combined with the official presentation of the concept of the metaverse, a new digital universe or the next incarnation of the internet signed by Mark Zuckerberg.
 
WITH "global digitalization” on a massive scale, the amount of information available on the web is also increasing. How to find your way in the information jungle of today's internet? Using an internet search engine, of course.
 
The undoubted leader in search is Google, which has accustomed us, the creators "internets", to systematically modify its search algorithm and change the rules of the game. A similar thing happened in the middle of this year, where with the implementation of a new search algorithm, many sites noted a drastic drop in organic traffic despite following the previous recommendations of the giant from Mountain View. 
 
Could this mean an accelerated end to the Internet as we know it?
 
Taking into account the above and the disclosure of the secret advertising agreement between Google and Facebook and AMP page performance spoofing, which Google is accused of, we may be witnessing the beginning of something new in the search domain. 
 
However, systematically shrinking organic traffic, especially on sites that to some extent interfere with new products from the owner of the world's most popular search engine, and decreasing organic reach on Facebook prompt reflection. Reflection supported by even bolder actions by brands in building their own, dedicated communities, and diversifying sources of Internet traffic.
 
We can therefore assume that we are witnessing a creeping revolution of the entire digital ecosystem of the Internet. A system that is undergoing a metamorphosis from a space subject to and functioning within the framework of the traditional economy and its leaders, large corporations, into something completely new, fully digital, which is already creating great opportunities for digital growth for brands. 
 
From the point of view of digital marketing, this is an extremely important issue because it not only strengthens content marketing tactics, but also opens up new possibilities, limited only by the imagination, of influencing recipients in digital layers of communication.
 
The king is dead, long live the king. In my opinion, the development of play-to-win platforms driven not only by the desire for profit but also by the desire to help and influence the development of the community, stands in bright opposition to the hypocritical, cynicism-filled actions of large corporations.

Ola Dzwierzyńska

Inclusivity and diversity

A trend that has been visible for several years now and is gaining strength, rolling like a snowball, bigger and faster – inclusiveness and diversity.

In the language – in our Polish language it is a difficult, mind-bending matter. Because are we seriously supposed to write now “we invite teachers, pedagogues, principals to a webinar about…” or resort to writing oddities: “we invite teachers, pedagogues” etc.?

Brands are taking different approaches – but there is a growing group of those who do not want to exclude in language messages. Even with small fan pages, you can hear negative feedback if the content of posts does not include both genders or non-binary people.

It is certain that those responsible for creating messages can no longer take the easy way out and write in one style. And with language, like with anything that is alive and used – it will change, evolve. At first, the changes may be jarring – that is why it is important to remember WHY and FOR WHOM we write like this. Who do we give strength to thanks to this and not ignore them?

In visual messages – for about a decade now, there has been a big 'haha' in the media every now and then when a famous fashion house invites a plus-size model to a fashion show. Well, those times are behind us – now it's time to go two levels up. It's time for people with disabilities, with dermatological imperfections, with vitiligo, it's time to show real bodies after giving birth, and not the bodies of sportswomen who get back into "shape" (you know, the kind for cake) 128 seconds after giving birth. It's time to show people of the same sex, non-binary people in communications.

I feel like this year is a time to show myself and to have the "I'm awesome the way I am" attitude. And I'm very happy about that. More and more brands are following this trend, which is caused by social changes and uncertainty of women's and minority rights. 

Some brands do it very very well. Some have not refreshed their strategy and it is clear that they have forced inclusivity – such an action has short legs.

Because we, as a company, a brand, have to be inclusive and diverse by ourselves. The recipients will sense any scam or attempt to make money off them from a mile away. Let's be careful, we marketers too, so that it doesn't turn into Tokenism.

Finally, here are some profiles that are inclusive, diverse, interesting, and that I recommend you follow:

Summary of the summary

What were the most important trends and events in digital in 2021, in your opinion? Let us know :)